That One Time
by demon-angel-325
Summary: Jason, after losing his virginity in New Orleans to a strange boy, has moved to New York and now attends Goode High. There he makes new friends and gets one of the prettiest girls as his girlfriend. But there's something about that Nico di Angelo kid...
1. Chapter 1

Jason pushed through the large Marti Gras crowd alone, since he had gotten separated with his sister. He had lost her a while ago and they had already planned a meet up place if they should get separated so he wasn't all that concerned. He also knew she wouldn't be either. She was probably off somewhere else in New Orleans, blocks away from the parade by now.

The trip to New Orleans was a last minute one but once Thalia had her mind set on something, she pushed through until she got her way. Plus, it wasn't so hard since their rich dad could afford to buy them last minute round trip plane tickets.

He kicked aside pieces of food and beer cans and kept his eyes peeled for girls who would flash their boobs for a bead necklace or two.

His hunt for a flash of a tit distracted him from seeing what was in front of him. His foot collided against a large crack and his body propelled him forward.

This was it. He knew it. This place was packed with people. Once he was down, he'd probably get trampled to death.

A sudden grasp around his wrist stopped him from falling though and yanked him back up. "Whoa!" he cried once he realized how close he had come to hitting his head on the pavement. He looked behind him and glanced at his rescuer, surprised by what he saw.

He had a messy shag of black hair and paled skin. He was a scrawny thing which made Jason wonder how he had managed to stop Jason from falling. And across his face was a black, haunting mask with dark feathers that came out in different directions.

He recognized that mask.

"You were on one of the floats from an earlier parade," Jason said, pointing at the boy.

The boy rolled his eyes. "You're welcome by the way."

"Sorry man I just…" Jason mumbled back though he doubted the boy heard him. "Thanks," he said a little later. "It's a little crazy here."

"Your first time here?" the boy asks.

Jason nods his head and shrugs his shoulders. "It was my sister's idea. And she's not even here for the parade."

"And you are?" the boy asks, crossing his arms. He held the slightest smile on his lips as he looked at Jason.

Jason shrugs again. "Not really but I can't think of anything else to do. Just figure I'd walk in that direction." He points to where he had been walking towards earlier.

The boy's dark eyes squinted behind the mask. "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. That way is Bourbon Street. The crowd only gets thicker." And as if to emphasize the point, some large man bumped into Jason as he tried to get closer to the floats.

Jason groaned. "Of course it is."

The boy smiled before grabbing onto Jason's wrist again. "Come on, I know a place where we can hang."

Jason couldn't help staring at the hand on his wrist before he was pulled through the crowd. When had he agreed to this exactly?

The boy expertly weaved through the crowds until it got smaller and smaller and soon the boy was pulling Jason through streets with far less people but still flooding with activity.

"Here," the boy said, stopping in front one of the many doors that lined the street. Jason looked up at the sign above the door that glowed in neon lights "Hades' Bar".

"As cool as this is," Jason said, his hand being dropped from the other boy's grasp who now used his free hand to put on the handle. "…I'm underage. And you look it too." Yes he did. Actually, the boy looked a little younger than Jason himself, though not by too much.

The boy laughed. "It's my dad's place," he said, beginning to pull the door open. "He lets me use the upper level for whatever. Some of my idiot friends are probably up there too. And my sister too."

He stopped opening the door, leaving it only half open before looking back and glaring at Jason. "If you touch my sister-"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Jason said, putting up his hands in defense. "Dude, I'm not like that. I won't lay a finger on her, I promise."

The boy narrowed his eyes at him. He was probably rethinking this whole inviting a total stranger thing. Jason could understand. There were quite a few freaks out in the world. Actually… he probably be rethinking taking an invite from a total stranger thing too.

But as the boy nodded his head and pulled the door all the way open and walking inside, Jason couldn't resist following right behind him.

The bar was filled with men and women, various members of both genders topless. Heated make out sessions were dotted throughout the bar while others played pool or were downing a beer.

Thankfully, the staircase was near the door and Jason was able to quickly leave the atmosphere and follow behind the boy.

When they were at the top of the staircase, they were in a narrow hallway with a door on both sides and one directly in front of them.

The boy made a move towards the one directly in front of them but he stopped suddenly as voices from the other side reached his ears.

"What's wrong?" Jason whispered, standing behind him.

"Someone… I wasn't expecting is here," the boy said, taking a step back from the door.

Jason turned his head to hear. "Come oooooooooon Bianca. When will my little play thing get here?"

"Get the fuck out of here Octavian! He wants nothing to do with you! Heck, no one does!" came a female voice and a sudden crashing and thudding beyond the door.

On high alert, Jason moved to enter the room and make sure whoever that girl, Bianca, was, that she was okay. The boy though lifted up his arm and stopped him, shaking his head.

"Fine I'll leave you stupid bitch," Octavian yelled back.

"Shit," the boy mumbled before grabbing Jason by the collar of his shirt and flinging him into one of the other doors in the hallway, squeezing in next to him before shutting the door.

They were in a tight closet and Jason could feel a mop pressed up against his back and his bare leg touching a cold metal bucket.

That wasn't the biggest problem though.

The closet was small so the boy was pushed up against him. Jason was so sure that he was more concerned with the asshole, who had obviously come for him, finding him than the fact that his front was pushed up against Jason's.

They heard Octavian open and close the door of the room he was in before stomping down the hall and down the stairs, muttering words to himself.

When Octavian was gone, Jason could hear the boy let out a breath of air.

"Sorry about that," the boy mumbled.

"Who is that?" Jason asked. "And why is he bothering you?"

"He's just this asshole named Octavian. Thinks he's got some sort of claim on me and won't leave me alone." He answered and against his side, Jason could feel the boy's muscles tense up. "He thinks he can just get me in bed whenever he wants."

"Oh," Jason whispered. He couldn't say more than that. Because at that same instant the boy's movements caused his side to rub against Jason's crotch and a shot of pleasure ran through him.

Curiosity was killing him though and he wanted to know more but settled with his embarrassed "oh" and moved to reach for the closet's doorknob.

He froze when he heard a slight whimper come from the boy.

Looking down he saw that when he moved, his own leg moved slightly and brushed against the other boy's own crotch.

He looked from the door's handle to the boy's face, which he can barely see since the light that flooded through the door's cracks was dim anyway but he could tell that the boy was looking back at him. He could also feel the other boy's heartbeat quicken since his chest was pushed against his own.

Jason breathed in for a second before he did what he felt was right.

He leaned down and kissed the boy.

The response was a muffled sound of surprise before he cautiously began to participate.

The kiss didn't last long and when Jason pulled away, he couldn't stop apologizing. He never did things like that. He didn't kiss people without their permission. He didn't do that to people he had just met.

But the boy quickly stopped his rambling apologizes by covering his mouth with his hand. The boy then opened the door of the closet and took them into the hallway. He was going to take him into the room where his sister and all those other people were, whose voices he could hear now. He was going to forget the kiss never happened. A pang of disappointment hit him hard and he stepped out of the closet behind the boy.

Instead of going towards the middle door, though, where all the other people were, the boy opened the other one and quickly pulled Jason in. The door shut behind him and he was plunged into darkness.

He then heard a click and a single light bulb hanging down from the ceiling turned on. Jason saw that he was in a bedroom with only a single bed in the corner.

His faced burned as he blushed and looked to see the boy who was standing shyly a few feet beside him. Jason couldn't help but smile at the suddenly flustered boy, especially since he was the one who had pulled Jason in there.

He reached over and turned the lock on the bedroom door, just in case anyone tried to get in, and smiled at the dark-haired boy. The boy smiled back before walking forward and crashing their lips together, pushing Jason against the wooden door.

Jason was immediately enraptured. He quickly brought his tongue into the action, caressing the boy's tongue with his own. He was an expert at this. He knew just the right movements and was proven right when the boy moaned.

This he knew how to do. As a high school sophomore, he'd had plenty of experience. Over the past couple of years he had made out with more girls than he could count. None of them were quite right for him though. Sure he wasn't the type to fuck-and-chuck (in fact he was still a virgin) and he did his best to minimize heartbreak.

None of those girls, though, could measure up to the excitement Jason felt know as he kissed this boy he didn't know. A boy whose face was still covered with a fucking mask.

The boy had a black T-shirt and jeans on with a large black belt securely weaving through his belt loops. Jason didn't know how far he was willing to go tonight, hell he didn't know if the boy wanted anything beyond kissing. Taking the boys shirt off shouldn't be too bad though.

Jason pulled back from the kiss and grabbed onto the front of his shirt roughly and fisting it before giving it a tug, grinning down at the boy before licking his lips as seductively as he could. The boy seemed to get the message before he reached down and started to pull the shirt up. But then Jason was struck with an idea.

"No," Jason said, pulling the boy even closer with the fist still clenched on the boy's shirt. He leaned in close to his ear, nibbling it a little at the top and licking the shell. "The mask first," he whispered into his ears. The boy took a sharp intake of breath before letting it all out in a moan which caused Jason's penis to twitch. He then reached forward and wrapped his two index fingers in Jason's front belt loops and pulled his pelvis forward, causing their slight erections to rub against one another.

"Do it," the boy whispered back. Jason then pulled away from his ears before kissing the boy's mouth once again. He grinded his hips forward and brought his hands up to tease the sides of the boy's face before slowly taking off the mask.

When the black mask was finally removed and discarded somewhere, Jason pulled back to look at the face of his current object of affection.

He couldn't really make out details in the dim light but he saw enough to realize how this boy looked both terrifying and beautiful at the same time.

"My god…" he whispered before kissing the boy again, their teeth clashing against one another. When he pulled back again, he roughly ripped the boy's shirt off and began to kiss down his chest. The other boy moaned and thrust up his hips, his hands burying in Jason's hair.

Jason bit down on the boy's chest when he saw fit and when he reached a nipple he couldn't resist taking one in his mouth and tweaking the other with his hand. His teeth scrapped against the nipple's tip and the boy hissed.

Satisfied, Jason continued to kiss down the boy's chest using his tongue to outline the abs he wasn't surprised that the boy had.

As he reached the boy's pants, moving to sit on his knees, he began to unbuckle his belt, his eager hands fumbling with the little clasp. When he finally undid the belt, he put his hand on the boy's button before looking up at the boy, silently asking for permission.

The slight nod was plenty enough for him.

Jason quickly unbuttoned the jeans and unzipped the zipper in one swift movement. He yanked down the jeans and was met with black boxer briefs that were doing a poor job of hiding just how turned on the boy was.

Jason kissed along the boy's pelvis just above where the waistband and poked his tongue out to tease the skin there.

Jason had never considered being with a guy before. In any way. But he had touched himself plenty of times and had discovered what spots liked when touched. That, paired with what Reyna had told him about all things sexual (she loved learning that kind of stuff), made Jason feel confident enough to not screw this up because, for some reason, he _really_ didn't want to screw this up.

"Oh my god. Please. Stop all this fucking teasing," the boy said, thrusting his hips forward again.

Jason couldn't help but smile before obliging and grabbing onto the boy's underwear and forcefully yanking them down. Jason looked at the boy's member, a bead of precum on its tip, before taking it into his mouth.

Unfortunately for Jason, he had one hell of a gag reflex, and wasn't able to take the boy completely and used his hand to make up for the rest of the space. He used his tongue to circle around and caress the member before beginning to bob his head up and down.

"AH," the boy moaned, throwing his head back and thrusting into Jason's mouth. Jason held onto the boy's hips to steady them and continued his ministrations.

The boy was turned into a whimpering mess and his hands dug into Jason's hair again, yanking on the blonde locks.

Jason hummed and watched as the boy bit on his lip to try from screaming too loud. His sister was right next door. Sure the noise her and her friends were making plus the idiots downstairs probably drowned out whatever noises they made but you could never be too careful.

Jason then tried something a little daring. He moved his hands that were clasped on the boy's hips backwards until he was grabbing roughly on the boy's butt. The boy moaned again and seemed to be restraining himself from thrusting forward.

Then Jason took his finger and found the boy's hole. Once he began to tease with his fingers, the boy nearly shouted. "I'm… I'm gonna"

Jason hummed one for time before the boy unloaded into his mouth. Jason began to swallow the salty liquid before looking up from where he was kneeling. He smiled at the boy before lifting up his hand to wipe the edge of his mouth from a little cum.

"Oh god," the boy whispered. "Fuck me now."

Jason was surprised as the boy moved his hands from his hair and yanked Jason from his sitting position. He kissed Jason, using his tongue to move across Jason and no doubt tasting himself. God this was so hot.

The pair made their way over to the bed, Jason falling on top of the boy. "I'd love to," Jason said in between kisses. "But I don't have any lube and I really don't want to hurt you."

"Don't be so cautious," the boy said, before reaching underneath the bed and revealing a bottle of unscented, half empty lube. Jason looked at the already opened bottle and felt a little jealous. He'd used the lube before? Just how many guys did he pick up and bring into his little room? Was that Octavian guy one of them?

The other boy began to pull off Jason's shirt, since the boy was still dressed, and brought up his lips to kiss Jason's neck. Once Jason's shirt was off, the boy quickly moved to take off Jason's pants and used his knee to press against his erection.

The pleasure that shot through Jason clouded his mind. He wanted this. For some twisted reason, he wanted to pound this boy into the mattress. And he was going to do it.

As those thoughts swirled through his mind, his penis twitched demanded attention. As if reading Jason's mind, the guy then palmed Jason through his boxers, causing Jason to moan.

Jason kissed the boy's lips again, forcing him to lie down before sitting back up and putting his hands on the boy's legs and spreading them. The guy looked at Jason hungrily and soon Jason felt a rush to be inside the boy.

He squirted some of the lube into his hand before rubbing it between his fingers. He took the boy's legs and propped them on his shoulders, before beginning to prep the hole. He used his right hand and began to sink in his finger. The boy clenched around him and Jason resisted the urge to say how tight it was. An uncomfortable look crossed the boy's face and Jason couldn't help but feel guilty.

He used his free hand to then reach around and begin to fondle the boy's balls and rub the penis with his thumb. He continued giving the boy's dick attention until he could feel him relax and he began to move the finger in and out of the hole.

He added a second digit and began the "scissoring motion" that Reyna had told him about. He alternated between the scissoring motion and thrusting the two fingers in until suddenly he hit a spot that had the boy biting hard on his knuckle in order to keep from screaming out.

He took out his fingers and poured more lube into his hands, rubbing it onto his dick generously before pulling back a little and allowing the boy's legs to fall a little. He went up and kissed the boy quickly before he thrust his hips and he entered him.

The boy was clenching again and was in obvious discomfort. Jason continued to kiss him and took his member into his fist and began to stroke. Once the boy seemed used to the feeling, Jason began to move, aiming for the same spot as earlier.

Once he found it, the boy groaned loudly into Jason's mouth. Feeling successful, Jason quickened his pace, thrusting faster and faster until the boy was a whimpering mess under him. Jason also didn't neglect the boy's now fully erected cock, rubbing it up and down.

He could feel his orgasm building in his stomach and he quickened his hand on the boy's penis. "I'm-" he managed before he completely filled his partner. The boy cried in ecstasy and cummed for the second time that night in Jason's hand.

Out of breath, Jason slowly pulled out before lying down on the bed next to the boy and pulling him close. He wanted to say something. He wanted to tell him how amazing it had felt. He wanted to tell him how this was his first time. Hell he wanted to tell him what his favorite fucking color was.

But he kept his mouth shut and pulled the boy close, kissing the top of his head.

Then his phone went off.

Two weeks later, Jason was rushing down the streets of New Orleans. Desperately searching for the street where "Hades' Bar" was. He had googled the address but was terrible when he came to maps.

When he finally did find the address he was stunned to see that the neon "Hades' Bar" sign was no longer up. Instead the word "Finn's" was spray painted in black on a wooden board. He entered the bar, which was quiet since it was still during the day.

"Hey! You're too young to be here!" a gruff voice came from behind the counter.

"What happened to Hade's?" Jason asked, sneaking a peak at the stairwell he had gone up just two weeks before.

"The owner of the joint sold it and moved just after Mardi Gras," he explained.

Fuck.

"Do you know where?" he asked.

"Nah. That creepy guy kept to himself. Plus he hated this place. I'm sure he didn't tell _anybody _where he was moving."

Shit.

"Oh. Well thank you," Jason said, backing out of the bar.

"Yeah whatever kid," the man said, turning away from the door.

Once outside, Jason collapsed to the ground, not believing what he had heard. The boy had moved? He was gone? Just like that?

He pounded the sidewalk beside him. He didn't even get his name.

Jason didn't know why he was drawn to the boy or why he had gotten attached after sleeping together one night. Clearly the boy didn't care, since he failed to mention that he was moving as Jason had quickly gotten dressed that night, after getting a call from his sister saying they were going to miss their flight, and told him he'd be back.

But, for some reason, he still held deep feelings for him.

"Shit," he mumbled.


	2. Chapter 2

_1.5 years later_

"Jason!"

Jason turned towards the voice to see his sister Thalia, dressed in one of her trademark rocker outfits, running towards him through the airport's main lobby, a smile spread widely across her face.

"Hey Thal," Jason said with a smirk when Thalia had reached him and proceeded to hug him. "Good to see you too."

He hadn't seen his sister all summer and wasn't about to deny that he had missed her. When their father had moved from San Francisco to New York City with intentions of opening the business center of his 5 star hotel chain, Jason had stayed behind to finish up an athletic camp that lasted all of summer. Thalia, instead, had gone ahead and moved in with her father.

Thalia kissed his cheek before pulling back from the hug and reaching for one of his suitcase. "Here, let me help."

The pair walked out of the airport and Thalia practically began to drag him towards a Prius waiting in the pick-up zone in front of the airport.

When they reached it, Thalia tapped on the trunk's door and looked through the back window to the driver. Seconds later, it popped open. She put the suitcase she held in her hand into before closing it. "You'll have to bring the other suitcase into the backseat with you. The trunks on these things are shit."

Jason stared at her, eyebrows raised. When Thalia frowned in confusion Jason quickly looked over at the driver, who wasn't much more than a lump behind the wheel at this point, before looking back at her.

"Oh!" Thalia said before shaking her head and lifting her hands into the air. "Duh. Sorry. I figured you wouldn't want the attention that comes with Dad's limo so I asked my friend Percy to drive me here and then take us home."

"Percy?" Jason asked with a smirk.

Thalia rolled her eyes before punching his shoulder. "It's not like that, idiot. He's got a girlfriend anyways."

"Uh huh," Jason said, the smirk on his face still present as he backed away from her and reached for the backseat's door. He heard Thalia groan before she hurriedly circled the car and slipped into the passenger seat.

After Jason wrestled in the other suitcase and managed to shut the door, Percy changed gears and they were driving away from the airport. Jason got a good look at Percy. He had dark hair and green eyes that sharply contrasted his hair that Jason couldn't help but notice.

After Percy and Jason exchanged hellos and introduced themselves, Jason demanded that Thalia tell him what she had been up to. During his camp, he barely had time to call his sister up and see how she was doing. The schedule was strict and he was usually tired by the end of the day. Sure, he was able to call her every once and a while and they exchanged small updates on one another but Jason knew there was a lot more than what Thalia told him during their 5 minute talks.

"Well I've made some friends," Thalia started. "Percy here, his girlfriend Annabeth, this dork named Grover, Grover's girlfriend Juniper-"

"Ouch," Jason interrupted. "Must suck to be surrounded by all those couples, huh?"

Percy laughed and Thalia shot him a glare. "I'm about ready to swear off men," she grumbled, causing both Jason and Percy to burst into laughter.

"But anyways, there's Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Leo. There's a few other people we're friends with. Like these kids Will and Nico but it's mainly the seven us hanging out." Thalia continued.

"What about… that Zoe girl you were telling me about?" Jason asked.

The car suddenly grew quiet and Jason noticed Percy's knuckles turning white as he gripped the wheel tighter. "Zoe Nightshade died a few weeks ago," Thalia said quietly. Jason felt his face beginning to heat up from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," he murmured under his breath.

"It's okay," Thalia said with a shrug. "It's a shame that I didn't know her better. I mean, we hung out a lot but we didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of stuff."

The car was once again plunged into an awkward silence.

"So Jason," Percy said, obviously desperate to break the awkwardness, "Thalia told me you play football. You going to try out for the team?"

"Yeah," Jason answered with a nod of his head. "I looked into Goode's football team and you guys aren't terrible so why not."

"Gee thanks," Percy said with a roll of his eyes.

"You play football?" Jason asked.

Percy shook his head. "No. Captain of the swim team. Frank Zhang is though. He used to be okay but he went through some sort of growth spurt or something over summer and now he's gotten pretty good. Hazel, his girlfriend, was telling me that Frank might become football captain this year."

Jason nodded his head. Normally, he'd storm into the school and steal away the title of football captain. But recently, he'd started to care less and less about titles and living up to society's expectations of what a strong, blonde high school student should be doing with his life. Honestly, at this point, he was just glad to be part of the game.

"When is the first day of school anyways?" Jason asked, his eyes moving to look out the window and take in the view of New York City.

"One week," Thalia said. "Which reminds me. All your textbooks are waiting for you in your room. Along with your schedule. You have a few classes with Percy, Frank, and Piper. We also signed you up for a basketball class. Everyone did. And since there's only one period teaching basketball, you'll have that class with everyone."

Talk of school immediately deflated Jason's good mood. It wasn't that he wasn't looking forward to school or the friends Thalia had apparently picked out for him. It was the fact that Thalia was a whole year older than him. She had already graduated high school and wouldn't tell him her plans for after high school. He knew she wasn't going to college. So what was she doing?

When he recognized the hotel Percy was pulling up to as the one his father owned, he shook his head and tried to get rid of his negative thoughts. Right now, he was going to spend time with his sister doing stupid stuff and being happy. He really had missed her and wasn't about to let something that's not even his business ruin it.

Percy dropped them off at the front of the hotel before driving off. Thalia and Jason lugged Jason's bags to the elevator before hitting the top level button. Their dad had left the whole top floor for their family, even though their dad was rarely around and their mother was no longer in the picture. Jason didn't remember anything negative about her but apparently that was because Thalia worked hard to make sure he didn't see her acting inappropriately and shielded him.

When they reached the top floor, they rolled their suitcases down the short hallway before Thalia pulled out a set of keys, unlocking the door.

The inside was dark and Jason reached blindly against the wall trying to find a light switch. When he found one and the light clicked on, several kids his age jumped from behind various places in the room.

"Surprise!" they all cried. He stood there, shocked, as his eyes scanned the faces of the various teens that were in his house smiling at him with their arms raised from jumping up. He didn't recognize a single one of them.

Jason looked over and glared at his sister, who smiled and punched his shoulder good-naturedly. "Come on," she said. "You love it."

It was true. Jason did enjoy a good party.

"So are you guys going to introduce yourselves or are you going to keep awkwardly staring!" Thalia yelled, before walking away towards a stereo. "Let's get this party started!"

Rock music started playing through the speakers but Thalia kept the volume low. This was a party to get Jason acquainted with some of the kids from his school. It was also an excuse for Thalia to throw a party but Jason appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

During the party, Jason talked to some of the friends Thalia had mentioned on the way over and a few others. Percy had come up a few minutes into the party and had proceeded to wrap his arm around the shoulder of a cute blonde who was talking to Thalia at the time.

Jason was laughing at something else Leo, an elfish looking Latino, had said, seriously this kid was hilarious, when he made eye contact with one of the girl's at the party. She had choppy brown hair and wore simple clothes and no makeup. She was absolutely gorgeous.

The girl blushed and looked down before bringing her attention back to the short black girl she was talking to.

Frank then walked up to him, joining in the conversation between him and Leo.

Jason had a feeling he'd like it here.

When the party (more of a meet and greet) was over, most of the people left leaving only Thalia, Percy, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Jason. Everyone else was either kicked out by Thalia or had somewhere to be. There were a few soda cans littered around the room but Thalia pulled out a trashcan and began to clean it up.

With a lot less people in it, Jason was able to see his new home properly. It was a large white room with golden colored furniture. The kitchen was just a stretch of counter with a stove, oven, refrigerator, and microwave. There was one door on the far right of the room and two more on the far left. He assumed those were the bedrooms.

He sat next to Leo, talking about stupid stuff which he found really refreshing. He couldn't remember the last time he had a conversation with someone that didn't have formal undertones to it. Back at the camp, he was the head of all the other campers so, while he liked their respect, he didn't make any real friends. The only real friend he ever had had been Reyna, who tried really hard to make it look like she didn't try hard. He had always pitied her. She had a lot more pressure on her shoulders to be the best than he did.

Despite that, though, she was probably one of the biggest perverts he ever met. And he adored her for that.

"Nico coming?" Jason suddenly heard Percy ask Hazel as Thalia was dumping the trash she had collected into a trash can in the kitchen area.

Hazel shrugged. "Maybe? I tried really hard to convince him but he just didn't seem all that interested.

"Who's Nico?" Jason asked. He recalled that Thalia had mention him in the car on the way over. He had met everyone else she had mention or, in Piper's case, at least knew who they looked like. Nico was the only one left.

"My brother," Hazel answered. "He doesn't get close to people."

"Not anymore," Percy added from the single golden chair he was seated in.

Jason could tell that there was some history with some of the people here. Looking at Percy with a sullen face, he couldn't help but realize that Thalia had chosen a tight-knit group of people as her friends. People she could count on. At least, Percy gave off that vibe.

He was curious to know more. Maybe he'd ask his sister for the backstory when they were finally alone.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Frank asked. He was sitting against one of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the apartment with Hazel leaning up against his chest, his arm wrapped around her.

"If anyone suggests Truth or Dare, I'll strangle them" Thalia said with a roll of her eyes.

Leo laughed. "Why? Got secrets to share?"

"No. Truth or Dare is just a stupid excuse to make people do sexual things or admit to something embarrassing." Jason noticed Hazel blushing from her spot on the floor.

"Well now we definitely have to do it," Leo said with a smirk.

"What are you going to do? Ask everyone here if they're virgins? Well surprise, we all are."

Percy and Jason suddenly awkwardly looked up to the ceiling, pretending to be nonchalant. The gesture didn't go unnoticed.

"Oh my god! Jason! Percy!?" Thalia cried.

Hazel's blush began to worsen as the conversation continued.

Jason shrugged his shoulders and smirked at his sister. "I don't tell you everything, sis."

"My god Jason!" Thalia said, throwing her arms up before bringing her attention to Percy, pointing her finger accusingly. "And you! Does Annabeth know about this?"

"I certainly hope so," Percy laughed. "I mean she was the one I-"

"Oh please! Stop talking!" Hazel said, her face buried into her hands. Frank rubbed her arm sympathetically but he was smiling about the whole thing, obviously amused.

Thalia groaned before flopping down on the couch, a look of disbelief on her face.

"If it was Reyna-"

Jason burst into laughter, interrupting Thalia. "Reyna was just a friend. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Then who-"

Thalia was once again interrupted. This time by a knock on the door.

"Come in," she called, before leaning forward on the couch and rubbing her temples. Jason patted her back and rubbed a few circles into it. She was overprotective sometimes so he understood why this whole thing was such a blow to her.

As the door opened, Jason turned around in his seat and was surprised by what he saw. A boy with black shaggy hair and pale skin stood in the doorway. He seemed to be hiding inside the aviators jacket he wore and his eyes darted around the room, nervously looking at everyone's faces.

"Nico!" Hazel cried before jumping up and running across the room to hug her brother. He had a slight smile as he hugged her back but it faded quickly. Jason wondered if the boy ever smiled a real smile, one where all the teeth were exposed.

"Great timing di Angelo," Thalia said with a wave her hand. "We were just talking about sex. Why don't you join us? We just discovered that, apparently, two of us here aren't virgins. Wanna guess which two?"

Nico raised his eyebrows but didn't seem as embarrassed about the whole thing as Hazel was.

"Well Percy would make one," Nico said and Leo, who had been drinking some soda, began choking on his drink before bursting into laughter. Jason couldn't help laughing either and Percy himself smiled.

"Obviously the second isn't Hazel or you," he continued.

"Wait!" Thalia said, waving her hands. "How'd you know about Percy?"

Nico looked over at Percy before looking back at Thalia. "Clearly, you haven't been paying attention to him. He's been overly happy the past two weeks."

"Oh? And you have?" Thalia asked, bewildered. Nico's pale face began to grow red and he looked away, embarrassed.

"Grover picked up on it too," Percy said with a laugh. Grover. He was the dorky, curly haired boy from the party.

"Can we please just stop this discussion?" Hazel asked.

"Fine, fine," Thalia said with a wave of her hand before looking back at Jason and pointing her finger at him, "but we're going to talk about this later."

Leo made an "ooooohh" sound to indicate that Jason was in trouble, which compelled Jason to nudge him roughly and glaring, causing Leo to laugh once again.

Then Nico laid his eyes on Jason for the first time.

And Jason could've sworn there was something in them.

* * *

**Alright. I know that some of the characters are a bit OOC. But that happens sometimes in AUs for the plot to move along in the right direction.**

**And I know the chapter was a little rushed but you want to read about lovely Jasico moments right? So I wanted to get to them quickly.**


	3. Chapter 3

"It's just so weird," Thalia rotated her wrists and stared confused at her brother. "You just… you've never been in a very committed relationship before and you're just not a 'one night stand' kind of guy."

Jason sighed, sinking down lower against the plump, white pillows that were a little too soft for his taste. They were in his room, a completely white room with golden trim on just about everything: the sheets, the desk in the corner, the curtains. It was kind of obvious what the theme of their new home was.

The thing was, she was right. He _wasn't_ a one night stand type of person, yet he had done just that.

"I don't like to talk about it Thalia," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "The whole thing kind of… messed me up."

Thalia eyes went wide with shock but she understood what he was getting at.

The whole thing had left him heartbroken

Thalia then left him in his room alone, allowing him to curl up in his bed and attempt to sleep. He was dreading it though.

He had a feeling he knew what he'd be dreaming about tonight.

_He was back in that room above Hades' Bar in New Orleans. He was being pushed against the wooden door and kissed hungrily._

_Just like before._

_He ran his tongue on the boy's bottom lip, until he opened his mouth and let Jason in._

_Just like before._

_Then Jason pulled back and fisted the boy's shirt, pulling up to indicate that he wanted it off before he decided against it. _

"_The mask first," he whispered into the boy's ear_

"_Do it," the boy replied with a tug of Jason's pants so that their crotch's rubbed against one another._

_Just like before._

_Jason then kissed the boy's face, before slipping the mask off his face. When it had completely come off, the dim lighting of the room suddenly grew brighter._

_And Jason could clearly see the features of the boy._

_And staring back at him, was the eager face of Nico di Angelo._

Jason woke up to the blaring sound of his alarm. He groaned as he stretched his arm to grab hold of the golden alarm clock on his side table before chucking it against the wall.

Which did nothing to stop the noise, by the way.

Jason groaned again as he sat up, glaring at the still ringing demon object. Thalia must've set it for him when he hadn't looked.

With a sneer, he hopped out of the bed and leaned down towards the contraption. Turning it over to inspect the series of buttons on the back, his slightly bleary eyes managed to locate the OFF switch. With a jerk of his thumb, the noise was off and he threw the clock onto his bed.

That's when he noticed his slight erection.

"Damn," he whispered. He hadn't dreamt about that night in months. He thought he had been getting better at forgetting that night.

But, apparently, his mind still desperately sought to give a proper face to the boy he had sex with a year and a half ago. Almost every small boy with dark shaggy hair had found his way into his dreams.

Nico's face, though, seemed more likely than the last few boys he saw that his subconscious had deemed a possible candidate. He had known he'd dream about it.

But that didn't mean he couldn't he disappointed in himself.

Making his way to his private bathroom, Jason jumped into the shower. He needed to get clean.

And he also had a slight problem to take care of.

Percy steered Jason into a classroom, his hand clapped on Jason's shoulder, declaring that the two of them had first period together.

Jason nodded his head, keeping his eyes glued to the two schedules he had in his hand, his and Percy's (they had 3 classes together, one of them being that basketball class), as well as the crudely hand drawn map of the school. Like really? That was the best Goode had to offer as a map? He was sure that if the administration simply asked a student with the slightest bit of artistic ability to draw it, they wouldn't mind. Then, Jason would probably have a better chance of understanding the damn thing.

Before he realized it, Percy had taken him to the back corner of the classroom and had pushed him into a seat, sitting right next to him.

"And we're in Building A?" Jason asked, his eyes still scrutinizing the map.

Percy laughed. "No, we _passed_ Building A," Percy said, leaning towards Jason's seat and using his finger to trace along the map. "We're in Building C now."

"Well then where is Building B?" Jason asked, flipping the map over repeatedly, causing Percy to laugh again.

"Building B is actually just the second floor area between Buildings A and C," he explained, pointing the rectangular shape in the corner of the map that was, apparently, Building B.

"That's the dumbest freakin thing…" Jason mumbled under his breath before he threw his head back and moaned, rubbing his hands up and down his face in frustration.

"I'm pretty sure Nico supposed to have this class too," Percy suddenly said, instantly grabbing Jason's attention away from the stupid map.

Nico.

Jason thought back to his dream last night but quickly shook it off. This wasn't the first time he dreamt of sleeping with another boy. There was no reason for him to bothered by the mention of his name.

But the fact that Nico was in his dream wasn't the only thing that made Jason interested in Percy's statement.

After everyone had left last night, his sister had explained all kinds of stuff to him. One of them was how Nico had an older sister who had died in a car accident about a year ago. A car Percy Jackson had been driving.

"Here," Percy continued. "Save a seat for him," he waved his hand at the seat in front of Jason, since the one in front of him was already taken.

Apparently, Percy still blamed himself for the whole thing.

Jason heaved his backpack up and reached to put it into the seat in front of him, claiming it as taken, before turning back to Percy.

"What class is this again?" he asked, glancing quickly over to the schedules on his desk.

Percy laughed again. "English Literature and Composition."

"Ew," Jason said, wrinkling his nose. He didn't like the way that sounded.

"What other classes do we have together anyways?" Percy asked, leaning forward to examine the two schedules on Jason's desk.

Jason looked back down to the twin, pink sheets of paper in front of him. "Other than this? Just basketball," he told him before looking up and frowning at Percy confused. "Why are we taking basketball as a course?"

Percy shrugged his shoulders. "To make sure we all have a class together. Plus Coach Hermes teaches that class and he'll definitely be too busy dealing with the track team to do any real monitoring of us. So it's basically a free period but we do it in gym clothes."

"How big is the class?" Jason asked.

"Coach Hermes only takes about 10 students to do basketball other than the students on the actual basketball team, which he also takes 10 of which would make 20 students. We talked to him last year and he said he'd make sure to have me, Annabeth, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Piper, and Nico in the class as 'non-basketball player' students," Percy explained, using his hands as he talked.

"From what I've seen, the members of the actual basketball team are supposed to be in charge of the class but generally they don't want people who are bad at it playing to actually play basketball. So we won't have to really do anything in that class."

Jason frowned. "Is that allowed? And how did I end up in the class?"

Percy smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Probably not. But no one wants to get Coach Hermes in trouble, especially since our track team has won the state championship three years in a row.

"And Thalia apparently called the school and pulled some strings, I don't know," Percy shrugged again. "If you ask me, she's just as intimidating as Piper is persuasive."

"Piper?" Jason asked with a smile. "She came to the party last night, right? Didn't really get a chance to speak with her."

Percy looked like he was about to open his mouth and reply when his eyes moved from Jason's face to look at something behind him. He instantly grinned and held up his hand and waved.

"Nico!" he said. Jason turned around in his chair to see the dark-haired boy, still wearing the large aviator jacket, making his way over to Percy.

"You have to be so loud Jackson?" Nico asked, adjusting the strap of his black backpack on his left shoulder.

"We saved a seat for you," Percy said, pointing to the seat in front Jason. Jason quickly leaned forward to take his own backpack off the seat and offer Nico the empty desk.

"Thanks," Nico said, before walking around Percy to get to his desk.

"But anyway," Percy said, turning back to Jason with a smirk. "You like Piper, huh?"

Jason rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile. "I don't _know_ Piper. She's cute and everything but I'm going to have to sit down and have a real conversation with her before I can decide whether I like her or not."

Percy seemed to take in the information. "So you're not the type to jump into a relationship?"

Jason looked at Percy with an eyebrow raised. "And you are?"

Percy lifted up his hands in defense. "Are you kidding? I knew Annabeth for years before we got together."

Percy then looked over to Nico, who was quietly sitting at his desk in front of Jason, rummaging through his backpack.

"What about you, Nico?" Percy asked.

"Don't have enough experience to say Percy," Nico replied.

Jason did his best to hide the shocked look on his face. He honestly didn't think that Nico had even heard their conversation. Nico just seemed like he would just tune out whatever they were talking about in favor of whatever he was trying to accomplish in that backpack.

But, apparently, Nico was a really good listener.

"You'd totally be the spontaneous type," Percy said, beginning to rub his chin as he thought about it.

Jason noticed Nico suddenly grew rigid and still before quickly going back to pulling things from his backpack, though there was a mechanical edge to it. Jason looked at Percy but could tell he was oblivious to the boy's change in demeanor.

"I don't know, like you'd totally go for the whole 'love at first sight' thing," Percy continued.

Jason tried to motion to Percy to shut up. He took his hand and made a slicing motion across his neck but Percy continued.

"And you would also really be into the mystery of love and stuff, like…"

Oh my god. Percy was killing Jason! Jason wanted to reach over and shake Percy and tell him to shut up. Nico obviously did not like the way this conversation was going, for whatever reason. It made him uncomfortable and Jason felt sorry for the kid.

He tried to get Percy's attention quietly, without alerting Nico but quickly decided against that. Percy would be the type to look at Jason and be like "What?" when Jason was silently trying to tell him to _shut up._

He had to help Nico. The boy already dealt with stuff, from what his sister had told him, and he wasn't sticking up from himself. He was just allowing Percy to continue on his rant about what he predicted Nico to be like.

"I was spontaneous once," Jason suddenly cut in. Percy stopped talking and looked at Jason curiously. Nico even turned around in his chair to look at Jason questioningly.

Jason wanted to dig a hole and live in there. Forever.

But at least the focus was off Nico now.

"Yeah. My sophomore year," Jason said. "Met someone in New Orleans."

"Really?" Percy said, with his eyebrows raised. Nico turned in his chair, apparently not interested.

"One night thing," Jason said with a shrug.

Before Percy could respond, the bell rang and students who had been standing or sitting on top of the desk, found their chairs as the teacher, whom Jason hadn't noticed had even been present in the room, stood up from behind his desk and addressed the class.

"My name is Mr. Eros," he said. "And I will be your English teacher for the year."


	4. Chapter 4

Jason was glad that he didn't have a class in that godforsaken Building B. Looking at the map was confusing enough but actually trying to use it to navigate through the school sounded miserable.

He went through the rest of his day, all of the classes were boring and just reviewed what the school year was going to entail. After English he had Math with Leo and Frank, then Anatomy and Physiology with Leo and Hazel, and then he was off to lunch.

He found Percy, Leo, Piper, and Frank sitting at a table in the courtyard and he quickly walked over to join them.

"Hey dude," Leo greeted Jason with a fist bump before Jason slid into the seat next to him.

Percy's eyes were trained on the entrance to the courtyard. Jason looked between Percy and where he was staring before sticking his hand in Percy's face.

"Uh dude?"

Percy quickly turned to look at Jason. "Oh! Sorry man. Just waiting for Annabeth. She doesn't get here until lunch since she only really needs a few more credits to pass."

Jason frowned. "You can do that?"

"Annabeth can," Frank explained. He had what looked like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his hand. "She's a dual enrollment student. So she takes classes at the college in the morning and then comes here after."

Wow. Jason was impressed. Annabeth sounded smart and, if anything, she probably could've graduated early. Looking over at the eager Percy Jackson, though, he could probably guess why she hadn't done that.

Eventually Annabeth came and he spent the next half hour eating and talking with the group of kids. Hazel even had taken the bathroom pass during her class, since she had a separate class, and visited them for a couple of minutes.

Then the bell rang and he was off to physics with Leo and Piper (where he managed to get Piper's phone number before the bell rang ending that class), and then American Government with Frank (where he and Frank just spoke about the upcoming football season).

Then he only had two classes left: Italian 2 and Basketball.

Why he had decided to switch from Spanish to Italian, he didn't know. Italian 1 back in San Francisco his junior year had been a nightmare since he had already taken Spanish 1 and kept mixing up the Italian and Spanish words and speaking with the wrong accent or pronunciation.

Oh well, too late to turn back now.

He managed his way to Building E, the foreign language building, just fine but actually navigating the hallways was tough. Clearly, there was a whole hallway that was added years after the building's first initial construction so the room numbers were messed up. He kept walking up and down the hallways looking for room E103.

He knew he was going to be alone for this class. Everyone else had taken their language during their sophomore and junior years. The only non-senior was Hazel. She was a sophomore but she was taking French. Jason was fine, though, with being alone for a class. It wasn't like it was extremely hard for him to socialize with people.

After walking up and down the main hallway, he finally resorted to ask a girl passing by where the freaking classroom was.

Apparently, it was a classroom only accessible from the outside of the building. Jason was seriously starting to hate the way Goode was set up.

He walked out of the building and circled around to the side, where the girl had instructed him to go. On the side of the building were two doorways, one of them had double doors with a faded "103" just right of the doorframe.

"This is bullshit," Jason mumbled before grabbing a hold of the metal door handle of the door on the right and yanking it open.

The room was a nasty yellowish color and it seemed that the teacher knew that two because the room was also almost completely covered with posters of Italian-related things, including several maps, pictures of a variety of Italian food, and simple slogans he had learned in Italian 1.

He walked in just as the bell rang but with a quick glance at the old geezer sitting in a desk at the back left corner of the room Jason quickly figured out he really didn't need to be in a hurry. The old man clearly didn't care. And the whole classroom was buzzing with conversations, signifying that yeah, this class was super easy.

He scanned the room for empty seats though he was pretty sure all that would be left were seats in the front.

Except there was one in the back right of the room. Right next to one Nico di Angelo.

Ignoring the other couple of empty seats, he moved straight for the seat to Nico's left. The boy watched him as he approached and frowned but didn't say anything. Jason slipped into the seat next to Nico and plopped his blue backpack onto the ground.

"Dude," Jason said, flashing Nico a smile. "I thought I'd be surrounded by a bunch of juniors," he replied. "Now I don't have to be the only senior!"

Nico looked at Jason from the corner of his eye before turning to look at him with a frown. "I'm not a senior. I'm only a junior," he replied.

Jason's eyes grew wide. "Seriously? But we have English together and that's a senior class!"

Nico shrugged his shoulders. "I've always been pretty good at English. Before I moved here, I was already a year ahead at my old school so this school just let me keep doing that."

"Huh," Jason said, unable to stop from looking impressed. "And why pick Italian as your language?"

Nico's face dropped to one of disbelief as he stared at Jason with dull, unbelieving eyes. "Are you serious? My name is Nico di Angelo. I'm _from_ Italy."

"So you speak it fluently?" he asked and Nico nodded in response, shrugging his shoulders in an uncaring gesture. Jason narrowed his eyes at him. "You are such a cheater."

The tip of Nico's lip curled up in a smile before he shrugged his shoulders again. He looked at Jason curiously until suddenly, the look dropped from his face. He left no trace of his small smile as he turned away to glance down at the textbook on his desk.

"Uh dude?" Jason asked, leaning towards Nico's desk. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Nico mumbled with a bored tone, looking back up at Jason.

"Well alright dude," Jason said, sitting back in his desk. "I just hope you know if we do any projects in here, you are _so_ my partner."

"I don't think you'll want me as any kind of partner," Nico responded with a roll of eyes.

"Nico man. You befriended my sister. That already gives you like 50 brownie points. She's hard to get along with sometimes," Jason insisted.

Nico just scoffed and looked away from Jason, obviously disinterested.

Several moments of awkward silence stretched between the two and Jason was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Was there something that Jason had done? Why did Nico give off these vibes that he didn't like him? Jason was slightly upset that Nico obviously disinterested in him. Like, seriously? Jason was trying to be nice to him. Was he doing something wrong?

"Thanks for earlier."

Jason nearly jumped at Nico's sudden statement. "What?"

"In 1st period. Percy can be… kind of dense sometimes. So thanks for… you know," Nico still wasn't looking at Jason and he shifted slightly in his seat and Jason could tell he didn't do this kind of thing often.

Honestly, Jason had hoped that Nico hadn't noticed that he had only blurted out what he said to shut Percy up. It meant that Jason obviously noticed Nico's discomfort and Jason was unsure of how Nico would react to that.

But before Jason could respond, Nico continued. "I don't need your help though. I've been dealing with Percy for over a year. I can handle a few of his incorrect assumptions about me."

Yup. There is was.

"Alright. No more protecting you from idiotic comments. Got it," Jason mumbled.

Apparently, during their discussion, the geezer had made his way up to the front of the classroom because now he was demanding the class's attention so their discussion was brought to a halt.

As packets of paper were passed out and the geezer described what he was expecting for the school year, Jason mulled over what Nico had told him.

Incorrect assumptions? If they were incorrect, why would Nico have cared what Percy had said?

Once the class was over, Jason suggested that they both head over to the gym together since they both had Basketball next and Nico agreed with a grunt.

Their walk was silent from Building E to the gymnasium but Jason was thankful that he had a guide because if he had to resort to that map to find the place, he'd probably punch a wall.

When they got to the gym, Nico made a beeline towards Piper and Hazel who were sitting on the bleachers talking to one another.

"Nico!" Hazel greeted with a smile as he sat on the row behind her. Jason stopped in front of them, sitting on the row in front of where Hazel sat and turned, straddling his legs on the bench so that he could look at the girls.

Jason greeted both of the girls with a smile and they exchanged hellos.

"Grace!" suddenly yelled a voice, stopping Jason from plunging into the girl's conversation. He turned his head to see Leo walking into the gym, Percy right next to him. "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Leo screamed, his voice echoing in the large gym as he threw his hands up.

"YOOOOOOO!" Percy added, also throwing his hands up.

Jason couldn't resist smirking and throwing his hands up, responding with his own "YOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Oh my god," he heard Piper say amused as she laughed a little.

"Hey! Shut up over there!" came a voice from down the bleachers. Jason leaned so that he could try to find out who said it.

Percy and Leo were halfway across the gym and they quickly find the source of the voice.

Leo stops walking and pats his hands onto his chest. "Make me Solace!" The clear smirk on his face showed how completely unserious this whole thing was.

Suddenly, Leo was dodging a basketball being thrown at him before running to catch up with Percy laughing loudly.

Leo gave Jason a fist bump when he made it to the bleachers, walking up to sit next to Piper. Percy sat next to Jason, copying his same stance but facing the other way.

"Dude. Clarisse is in this class," Leo whispered, leaning over Piper so that everyone could hear him.

Percy shrugged. "I heard she signed up so she could actually play basketball, even though she's not on the school's team."

"Who's Clarisse?" Jason asked, leaning back to lean on his hand.

"Kind of a bully for bullies," Piper said. "She claims that no one can pick on other kids except her but she never does anything."

"She didn't use to be like that though," Percy said with a laugh. "She tried to stick my head in a toilet during the first day of my freshman year. But then she met Chris and she changed a lot."

Jason was pretty certain that this "Chris" character would be Clarisse's boyfriend.

Annabeth and Frank joined them a little while later, Annabeth rolling her eyes when Piper told her about the greeting Jason, Leo, and Percy had exchanged just minutes before.

"Seaweed Brain," she mumbled before leaning forward to give Percy a quick peck on his lips.

"I blame Leo," Piper said. "He's a bad influence."

"Hey!" Leo said, a fake look of insulted on his exaggerated features as he placed his hand on his chest. "I take offense to that!"

"No you don't," Hazel said with a laugh. "You're so proud of that. It's obvious in your little smirk there."

"Flaunt what you've got ladies," he said, adding a wink for emphasis and causing everyone to burst into laughter.

It was a free period. Everyone was given their assigned lockers for the locker room and were allowed to spend the rest of the period doing what they wanted. Unsurprisingly, the basketball players played basketball along with two others who weren't basketball players, Clarisse and some other guy, played with them.

The eight of them hung out on the bleachers, everyone but Nico talking which Jason couldn't help but feel guilty over. Nico didn't seem to feel like he belonged and, despite the fact that Nico had practically told him to back off, Jason felt like he needed to make sure Nico didn't feel left out even if Percy seemed to be trying to do the same thing, doing his best to bring Nico into the conversation with no success.

Jason had to say the highlight of the class was when Leo fell down the bleachers and onto the gym floor and having to curl into a ball to avoid the oncoming game of basketball.

He was in tears he had been laughing so hard.

After school, Jason was eager to get home and see his sister. He wondered what she could possibly be doing while he was at school but she had been pretty good at avoiding the topic when he had brought it up earlier so he decided to drop it.

"Wow," Thalia said as he walked through the door of their hotel home. She was settled on one of the couches, Cheetos from a family sized bag and watching the Discovery Channel. "I thought everyone would've tried to drag you to that dumb pizza place Percy is so obsessed with."

Jason laughed. "They tried. And should you really be eating Cheetos on Dad's nice couches? What if you stain because of your careless orange fingers?"

Thalia gave Jason an annoyed look. "Please. He won't be here enough to ever notice. And I know how to eat Cheetos out of a damn bag."

Jason laughed, throwing the backpack onto the couch next to Thalia. "Your friends are… fun," Jason said as he walked over to the fridge, pulling out some grapes and popping them into his mouth.

"I thought you'd like them," Thalia said. "And speaking of friends, Reyna called to tell me how pissed she was you didn't Skype her last night."

"Oh shit!" Jason groaned, slapping his face before running his entire hand down it. "I totally forgot. She's going to kill me."

"Well you better go call her Romeo," she said.

"For the last time, it's not like that!" he nearly yelled as he shoved the grapes back into the fridge and made a beeline for his room. "And Romeo and Juliet is a terrible example to describe a relationship!"

"So you're admitting to being in a relationship with Reyna?" Thalia asked.

"I swear to god, Thalia!" Jason said, finally entering his room. "I'd tell you if something was going on! Jeez!"

Then he shut the door, the sound of his sister's laughter sounding muffled as he made his way to his computer.


	5. Chapter 5

[2 months later]

"Honestly, I can't decide if I feel bad for Nico or wish I was him right now," Leo said from his spot on Percy's couch. He had slunk down on the cushions, his hand deep inside a bag a Doritos, pulling them out one at a time and eating them with a satisfying crunch.

"Why would you wish to be Nico? All he's going to be doing is watching the girls get ready," Percy said. He was leaning against the coffee table that had previously been the living room's centerpiece before it was pushed back to make room for his guests.

"Well yeah," Leo said with a roll of his eyes. "_He_ is just going to watch. _He_ will turn away while they get dressed. _I_ on the other hand..."

"You better shut up Leo," Jason said with a laugh. "Every single one of those girls is taken by a guy in this very house."

Leo narrowed his eyes at Jason. "Yeah. Leaving me the only single one. I mean seriously Jason; you just transfer here and already you're with Piper? Talk about leaving me behind man."

"I think your bromance with Percy is enough for you," Jason said with a laugh.

"Whatever!" Percy nearly screamed, leaning forward and pointing at Jason accusingly. "Leo's been hanging out with you so much more than me! I've been replaced," Percy cried, throwing his hands up and looking over at Leo.

"You've got Grover!" Leo said. "And Jason isn't as annoying as you."

"_I'm_ annoying!" Percy yelled. "Look who's talking! And Grover's always busy with college and work!"

"Wow you guys are loud," Frank said, walking into the living room from the kitchen where he had been helping Sally, Percy's mom, with some dessert she was making. She had wanted something to give everyone when they got back from the Homecoming dance and Frank had offered to help.

"Leo just called me annoying!" Percy continued to yell, pointing at Leo but looking at Frank pleadingly.

"If you don't tone it down, I might have to agree with him," Frank said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms across his chest.

Jason could barely contain himself and doubled over laughing in the wooden chair that Percy had pulled from their kitchen.

"Percy!" Sally's voice suddenly rang from the kitchen before she ran into the living room. "Have you seen Paul's blue tie? The one with the silver band?"

"He put it in his sock drawer," Percy answered with a roll of his eyes.

"Thank you!" Sally said before going to get the tie.

"Date night?" Jason asked Percy who just nodded his head before he lifted his eyebrows seductively. Jason got the hint pretty quickly. Percy was going to be alone with Annabeth in the house after the dance.

"What time are we leaving?" Jason asked, looking up to the clock that hung on the wall just to the left of where Frank leaned against the wall.

"Dinner reservation is at 6," Frank said. "That will give us an hour to eat and get to the school."

"So leave at like 5:30?" Percy suggested and everyone agreed with a satisfied grunt.

"And the girls are coming at 5, right?" Leo said, looking at the clock too. "They're been at the hotel with Thalia getting ready since before noon! How long does it take for a girl to get dressed?"

"This is Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel we're talking about," Jason said with a laugh. "They're not getting dressed. They're just hanging out and just said they were getting ready."

Leo's mouth dropped. "Your girlfriends are all liars! Now I feel even more bad for Nico. Stuck there listening to their gossip," Leo groaned and threw his head back. "I can feel the secondhand pain now."

Nico wasn't going to the dance. He had said that dances weren't his thing and everyone felt a little bad. Was it because he was the only one who had a date? Even Leo had a date, even if it was with that bitch Khione.

Of course, Hazel had immediately come up with a solution to invite Nico to help her, Piper, and Annabeth get ready with Thalia at Jason's house. Which was exactly why he was at Percy's. The girls had kicked him out at about 11 this morning and he didn't exactly know where else to go. Percy's mom had already told him yesterday, after the homecoming game (which they totally won) that they all had to come to her house to get ready. So he ended up on Percy's front porch at 11:30, finding both Percy and Leo in pajamas and bowls of cereal in their hands.

Apparently Leo had spent the night last night.

A little while later, they had called Frank to come over and had spent the next several hours just goofing off. They even had a game of Twister, which had ended in a tie between Percy and Leo.

Of course neither of them would admit that.

Suddenly, Leo's phone began to ring in his pocket. He frowned down at his leg where the phone was buzzing against his thigh. He set the bag aside before using his hand clean of Dorito residue to dig into his pocket and pull out his phone.

He looked at the screen and groaned loudly before standing up from the coach. "I gotta take this," he said, retreating down one of the hallways and into, what Jason assumed was, Percy's bedroom.

"I bet it's that bitch," Percy said harshly.

"She is pretty cold," Jason added, thinking of how rude, yet extremely hot, Khione was. He remembered when he had first met her the first week of school. She had been really nice at first, all smiles and carefree seeming, but after a while her true colors came out.

"I don't understand why he didn't take Nyssa," Frank interjected with a frown. "She's really nice and everything."

"He said something about taking Nyssa would be too weird since Nyssa is like a sister to him. And she just asked him out of pity. She had actually really wanted to go with some other guy but had felt bad for Leo and had asked him instead," Percy explained with a sigh. "But I'd rather him take a pity date than Khione."

"Is there a reason for that?" Jason asked. Sure, him and Leo had gotten pretty close (close enough to apparently jeopardize his little bromance with Percy) but he couldn't figure out why Leo had agreed to taking Khione to the dance.

"Bet Khione is just blackmailing him. That bitch," Percy said, crossing his arms.

"With what? Leo's…. Leo. He doesn't do things that can be used as blackmail." Jason added with a frown. Leo had always been the least complicated person out of the group. At least he was to Jason. He was straightforward a lot and took things lightly. He was just this ball of happy energy and always did his best to spread it around. He didn't seem to have this deep, complicated core. He was just… Leo. He wouldn't do anything bad.

They were all interrupted by the sound of Jason's own cell blaring some stupid, default ringtone. He dug it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. Reyna was calling.

She was so going to kill him for this later.

He hit ignore and stuck the phone back into his pocket.

He remembered how angry she was when he called her for the first time since moving to New York on Skype. Of course after she had calmed down, she was back to her pervy self again.

"_So did you have the dream?" she asked, an excited glint in her eye that made Jason have to fight to groan in annoyance. "You did, didn't you?!"_

_Jason sighed and didn't answer, staring at Reyna's face on his screen._

"_Oh my god, Jason. There one day and you've already found a dark haired prince," she laughed, mocking him._

"_See? This is what I get for confiding in you," he says, though he couldn't help but smile. "And it's not my fault!" he added with a pout._

"_Yeah, yeah whatever. It's your subconscious mind doing it. Blah blah bullshit. You're just horny as hell." Reyna said, amused._

_Jason didn't know what he'd do without her._

_Like seriously._

_Here she was, taking him apart right, piece by piece, in front of him and pointing out things about himself while also letting him know that it was okay. The whole thing that had happened in New Orleans was okay._

_It was okay that he had sex with a guy._

_It was okay that he pinned afterwards when he didn't even properly see the boy's face._

_It was okay that he was still hung up over the whole thing._

_Because she was there for him not matter what._

_They changed the subject quickly after that, moving on to the friends Jason had made. He refused to tell her which one was the small dark haired one though. There was telling what she'd do if she got a hold of his name._

A few minutes later, though, Jason felt his phone buzz in his pocket, signaling a text message. It was probably Reyna, sending him a text message in all caps and ending in several exclamation points about how pissed she was that she was ignored.

He considered ignoring the message too but thought quickly shut down that idea. He could just reply and say he was busy with friends. She would understand. He dug back into his pocket and fished out his phone.

The message displayed on his phone's home screen took him off guard. Instead of all caps the entire sentence was in lower case letters, even the first letter of the first word which was automatically capitalized by Reyna's autocorrect. That meant Reyna had deliberately made the entire sentence lowercase and Jason read the message hearing it in Reyna's smug voice she used when she had claimed some sort of victory.

'met your dark-haired prince'

Jason's eyes widened and impulsively shot up from his seat, staring at the phone.

"Jason? What it is?" he heard Frank asked and he quickly looked up to see Frank staring at him with his eyebrows furrowed, confusion clearly evident.

Jason quickly realized that he had kind of made a show of his reaction but who could blame him? Reyna 'met his dark-haired prince.' That could only mean that she had gotten in touch with Nico and who knew what had went down during that exchange.

Not that Nico was actually his 'dark-haired prince' or anything. Nico's presence in _those_ dreams had just been lasting longer than any of the others. It wasn't a nightly thing but it happened frequently enough. And, of course, he had told Reyna that little fact. Then, since Jason had refused to tell Reyna his name, she had gotten into the habit of calling him the 'dark-haired prince'. Sure, she usually called Jason's fantasy guys that but it was now Nico's official nickname for Reyna. He was slightly worried about Reyna could've possibly said to Nico _if_ she had even really talked to him. He had been slowly getting closer to Nico and he didn't need him being freaked out by the little fact that he was constantly having wet dreams about him.

His eyes were still widened in shock and he looked between Frank and Percy, who looked confused but not as concerned as Frank. He forced his body, that was now on high alert, to calm down and he shook his head. "Nothing serious. Just got to make a phone call." He waved his phone for emphasis before beginning to walk out of the room.

He was about to head outside to call Reyna, wanting privacy while he interrogated her for the details, when Leo returned to the living room with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Who was it?" Frank asked Leo. Leo quickly shook his head and the annoyed expression went away, replaced by this really large grin.

"My super hot date." He quickly sat back down on the couch, taking interest in his bag of chips again. "She was just confirming the time of our dinner reservations."

"Oh. Is that all?" Percy said, looking down at his hands sitting in his lap. There was a frown etched on his face and Jason could tell how totally bothered by this whole thing he was.

Was there some reason why Percy didn't like the idea of Leo going to Homecoming with Khione other than the fact that she was a total bitch? Was there actually more to Leo than Jason thought? Was there more to _Percy_?

Thalia had said that the group had gone through quite a few rough patches, both on their own and with each other. What exactly had Leo had experienced, that Percy knew about, that made the fact that Leo was going out with Khione such a terrible thing?

He had to remember to ask Thalia later. Maybe she'd know.

For now though, he had a certain Puerto Rican to take care of.

"Give me like five minutes guys," Jason said, waving his phone again and going into the same room Leo had just vacated. He was quickly able to confirm that, yes, this was Percy's room. His clothes were strewn around the room and swimming medals decorated the walls. His black swimming bag was tucked into a corner of the room next to a fiery red one that Jason guessed was Leo's overnight bag.

Unlocking his phone, he quickly went through his contacts to find Reyna's number before quickly calling it. She answered on the second ring.

"Knew that would get your attention," Reyna said as she picked up, laughing into the receiver.

"What did you do?" Jason asked, sitting down on Percy's unmade bed.

"I didn't _do_ anything Grace," Reyna laughed. "_You_ were the one who apparently left your computer on when your sister ushered you out of your house this morning."

Jason groaned in realization. He had been on the computer when his there had been a knock at their suite door. He had answered it and then been promptly shoved out of the room and into the elevator by Piper and Thalia, Piper kissing him just before walking into his suite and shutting the door.

"He's really cute by the way," Reyna added.

"Oh my god Reyna!" Jason groaned. "What did you say to him?"

"What kind of friend do you think I am?" Reyna asked, feigning an insulted tone. "I was pleasant and we had a brief conversation. Along with your sister, your friends, and your girlfriend. She's cute too."

"What?" Jason asked.

"When I sent you a video call, apparently everyone had heard the noise from the living room that you were getting and call and Thalia had decided that they all accept the call. After Thalia introduced me to everyone we talked for a little bit and made fun of you." Reyna laughed again. "It's like my typical Wednesday."

"But you didn't say anything… inappropriate?" Jason asked.

"Okay, for one thing Jason Grace I cannot believe that you would think that I would do or say anything to seriously cause any trouble," Reyna nearly screamed through the phone. "I may pick on you but we're friends. I wouldn't do anything like tell your girlfriend, your sister, and Nico himself that you've been having hot and steamy erotic dreams of Nico in some small backroom of a bar in New Orleans."

Jason groaned. "Oh my god could you please not?" he said, rubbing his face with his hand. "And sorry for thinking you'd do something like that. It's just…"

"I know kid," Reyna said. "I got it."

"No," Jason said with a sigh. "I'm a shit friend and I shouldn't have thought you'd do something like that. Don't excuse it. I am really sorry about all that."

"And out comes the sentimental and serious Jason who feels like he needs to live up to everyone's expectations," Reyna said with a sigh. "I thought I told you about that."

"Sorry," Jason mumbled again.

"You apologize again, I swear to god Jason, I will fucking castrate you!" Reyna screamed, causing Jason to wince and move his phone from his ear. "We're friends Jason. _Friends_. That means we're here for each other and we don't allow stupid things like misunderstandings and mistakes to get in the way of that. You don't get to carry all that baggage on your own. Whether you like it or not, I'm there with you, helping you to keep everything up. Just like you are with me."

Jason took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right."

"Damn straight," Reyna said and Jason couldn't help but smile. Reyna took relationships very seriously. When she claimed you as a friend, that's exactly what you were. She was furiously loyal and she expected nothing less from the people that said she was their friend. And as a friend, you were allowed to be yourself. Actually, Reyna expected nothing less. And yourself included all the cracks and bruises that comes with every person.

Jason resisted the urge to apologize again and ended the phone call, promising to call when he could before the weekend was up.

He walked across the dirty room, a fact he was definitely going to imagine was going to turn off Annabeth tonight, and exited Percy's room. "Sorry that took longer than I thought," Jason said as he walked into the living room.

"No problem," Percy said, quickly glancing at Jason before looking back to Leo, who had been staring him down.

Percy looked at Leo with a fiery look in his eyes and Jason noticed Frank watching the two of them with his lip turned up in an amused half-smile.

"Admit it!" Percy yelled.

"NO!" Leo yelled back.

Jason panicked for a second. Were they seriously arguing about something? Khione? What had happened while he was on the phone?

Their elevated voices though held no malice and Frank, who would've stopped a real fight before it started, was just standing there looking pleased with the situation. They were probably just doing that stupid bickering thing that they do.

"You just can't accept defeat can you?" Percy said with a shake of his head. Jason took his seat back on the wooden chair, sitting back to watch the show.

"I accept defeat when I'm defeated. I clearly won," Leo responded.

"By cheating!"

"The Leo Valdez does not cheat. He just whips Percy Jackson's butt over and over."

"By cheating!"

"Well then how am I cheating?"

"By cheating!"

Jason could hardly stand to listen to the two argue over something stupid. It was there thing though so instead of interrupting he rolled his eyes and looked up, resting his hands on the back of his neck and tuned them out.

He tried to think of something else.

He quickly changed his mind about that, though, as sudden flashes of a naked di Angelo boy trembling beneath him took over his mind.

He decided that, yeah, he should listen to Percy and Leo argue instead.


End file.
